


Monster Universe Online

by BlueLightningAndNexus



Category: Original Work
Genre: Action/Adventure, RPG, Role-Playing Game, Swordfighting, Virtual Reality, cyberspace
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-12
Updated: 2020-08-12
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:34:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,202
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25860649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlueLightningAndNexus/pseuds/BlueLightningAndNexus
Summary: Garret Nolan--a shy, introverted teenage boy--loads up the hot new virtual reality game Monster Universe Online, and immediately befriends one of the game's top players.





	Monster Universe Online

“Well, here goes nothing.”

Garrett put his headset on. It was the newest model of the VRHS, technically known as the Virtual Reality HeadSpace. He’d stood in line for hours with his friends to get these a few weeks ago, and it cost him months of paychecks, but it was worth it. 

He had to lay down to put it on, otherwise his body would collapse to the floor the second his consciousness was whisked off into cyberspace. He was currently laying on his bed, surrounded by movie posters, novels scattered on his floor and shelves, and half-finished devices he’d been tinkered with. He blinked once, twice. The tiny sensors inside of the VRHS were scanning his retinas. 

A woman talking in a robotic voice spoke through the tiny speakers located on the side of the HeadSpace. “Hello, I am your Computerized Link Escort into the Online,” the voice said. “But please, call me Cleo. I am the AI in charge of all Virtual Reality HeadSpace devices. Is your name...Garret Nolan? Blink once for yes and twice for no, so we can check the visual scanners inside of your headset.”

Garret blinked once, then waited. “Excellent. Garret, please be patient as we calibrate the engines for your five senses. This will only take a moment, and this is the only time we will need to do so.”

Cleo’s voice was a bit strange to listen to. He wasn’t even sure if it was recorded by an actual human; it could have just as easily been a series of sounds, words and phrases generated entirely by machines. Before Garret could comprehend this, Cleo spoke again. 

“Smell, taste, touch, sight and hearing are all calibrated, as are balance, heat and pain. The title currently loaded in this headset is...Monster Universe Online. Speak ‘yes’ or ‘no’ if this is correct, so we may check the audio sensors and feedback on this device.”

“Yes.” Garret’s voice felt dry and hoarse in his stuffy room. 

“Excellent. We will begin the game shortly. Please adjust your position, as you will be unconscious while playing the game.”

He adjusted his position on the bed slightly, kicking a bedsheet off the mattress. 

“5...4…”

Garret thought of all the fun things he’d do in the game, all of the adventures he’d go on, the skills he’d learn. 

“3...2…”

He also thought of the danger, of the people he might encounter. He knew it was probably just his anxiety running rampant, but he couldn’t help himself. 

“1...START!”

In an instant, Garret felt he was whisked away. A cold, computerized wind blew at his skin, making his eyes water. The dull, washed out colors of his bedroom walls and ceiling were replaced with a blind flash of light, all colors of the rainbow and then some. He instinctively closed his eyes; when he opened them again, he was in a completely white void. 

“Greetings, Garret Nolan.” This time, the voice was different. He looked up, and found a sign reading “MONSTER UNIVERSE ONLINE.”

“I am the system presiding over Monster Universe Online, also known as MUO. I see you submitted information for your avatar online. Would you like us to use this preloaded information?”

A screen popped up next to Garret’s left hand, with two icons: green check-mark next to the word “YES” written in gold, and a red X next to the word “NO” written in silver. Garret picked the former. 

“Those in Monster Universe Online are organized into several different groups: the Alpha Clan, the Beta Tribe, the Gamma Brotherhood, the Delta Kingdom, the State of Epsilon, and the Zeta Alliance. Our data indicates you wish to be a part of the Delta Kingdom. Is this accurate?”

The same screen popped up, and Garret’s finger hovered over the check-mark. 

“Be warned, each group has their own culture, fashion style, and weapon upgrades, which will be locked in upon picking a group. Are you sure you wish to pick the chosen group?”

Garret hesitated once more, but hit the check-mark anyways. 

“Excellent choice. We have some more information we need you to confirm.”

A large screen pulled up, much bigger than the previous one. It listed a number of attributes Garret needed to check. Most of them pertained to the specifics of his fighting style, which he’d been told could be changed in the game settings later, but the one that caught his eye the most was the “CLASS” setting. Intrigued, he selected it and was met with a list of races bigger than the initial screen. 

“Woah…” he muttered. 

Most of these classes were ones he’d heard of from watching his brother play pen-and-paper role-playing games. Barbarian, Cleric, Avenger, and more. But some of them he’d never even heard of. Voidwalker? Tempus Master? He had no idea what to make of those. 

Finally, after much agonizing, Garret picked the Rogue class. What could go wrong with playing as a Rogue, right? 

“One final item,” the new system said. “Our data indicates you wish for your alias in the game to be Cyber. Is this correct?” 

Garret once again selected the green check-mark. All at once, the white void he’d essentially been floating in began to shake, and he felt a wind blowing past his ears once more. 

“Excellent. Our servers are experiencing a higher-than-usual amount of traffic, but you will be transported to an area just outside of one of our many hubs. Good luck, Cyber.”

The gray sweatshirt and ripped jeans Garret had been wearing disappeared into dust, fragments of a virtual world lost to the nothingness. In a flash, his sweatshirt was replaced with a white coat that had blue highlights--blue-on-white being the colors of the Delta Kingdom. A black undershirt appeared immediately afterwards, and light blue pants formed around his legs. A pair of worn leather boots coalesced on his feet the second before he landed. 

Even though he felt like he’d been soaring through the cyberized void for a while, he didn’t feel any pain when he hit the ground. Garret rose to his feet in an instant. 

“I...I can’t believe it,” he muttered. Looking at his hands, he was amazed at the sight staring back at him. His entire body and all of his senses had been...digitized. For years, scientists said it couldn’t be done, that all five of the human senses together formed a system too complex and intricate to be fully loaded online. But here he was. 

Looking around, Garret could see what the system was talking about. A few hundred meters in front of him, he could make out a massive city, ripped straight out of a fantasy novel. A large wall surrounded it, but he could still make out the tops of castles and towers. Beyond that, an expansive forest to the north, ripe for exploration. 

Garret scanned the south, the west, the east. Beyond that city in the immediate northern vicinity, things seemed pretty barren. A few hills, a couple of bushes, but mostly flat-land. 

All of these factors made it easy to spot the archer. 

Out of the corner of his eye, Garret thought he saw a flash of orange. Trusting his instincts, he fell to the ground in a crouching position, just in time for an arrow to whiz by. He could feel it trimming the black hair atop his head. The archer was a tall man in an orange robe; orange was the color of the State of Epsilon. _Wait, what? I thought spawn points were organized by alliance, why are Epsilon players all the way over here?_

“A quick one, eh?” 

Garret turned around just in time to see a large man in red armor charging him with an axe, and he came face-to-face with the source of the gravelly voice. The teenage boy didn’t have any time to take in the sight; he side-stepped an impressive strike and jumped out of the way to avoid the follow-up. Unfortunately, he fell right in the range of a nearby spear-user. 

This third fighter was a lanky woman who wore light armor, but her lance was easily six feet long, probably longer than she was tall. Garret--or, Cyber, as he had to remind himself he was called in this world--sidestepped and grabbed the spear, but her grip was iron on the weapon. 

Looking down, Garret saw that the spear was glowing a mild purple color. , _She already enchanted her spear?_ he questioned. _What the hell? The game just barely got released._

The woman kicked Garret away and charged at him once more. Garret tried to load up his own weapon--a default one-handed iron sword--but he wasn’t quick enough. There wasn’t any way he could tank this; he still had a tiny amount of health due to being a Rogue and having just started the game, and he was up against a woman with an enchanted spear already. _Damn, what a way to go: dying five seconds after first starting the game._

He closed his eyes, but the finishing blow never came. The sound of metal alerted him back to reality. 

He opened his eyes, and found an older man, a dark gray jacket wrapped around his shoulders and blowing in the wind like a cape. He’d blocked the spear attack with his own sword: the blade was of intricate design, a gold-colored metal shaped into a lightning bolt. No such weapons existed like that in the game; it was custom-made by its user. 

“Come on, guys, are we really gonna do this?” the cloaked man asked. “On day one? We’re better than camping and killing the new people when they spawn.”

Garret raised an eyebrow. THAT’S what this was about? Killing the weak, inexperienced players just for a little bit of XP? Well, that would explain where they got the weapons. 

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the archer--maybe thirty or forty meters away--draw his bow once more. “Mister, duck!” Garret cried out. 

This mystery swordsman ducked at the last possible second, and the arrow sunk right into the throat of the spear-woman. He reached down and grabbed her spear just as she was dying, before turning around and throwing it with a crazy amount of strength. It sailed through the air in an arc, resulting in a beautiful headshot on the archer, whose health depleted into nothing in an instant. 

When the axe-user jumped at the two of them a split-second later, the mystery swordsman grabbed Cyber by the collar of his jacket and pulled them out of the way of another strike. Cyber’s rescuer ducked underneath the follow-up attack and slashed the man across the chest with his lightning bolt sword, before coming back on his feet behind the man and sinking the blade into the center of his back. 

The man exploded in a flash of light, leaving Garret breathless at the sight of such quick reflexes and such masterful swordsmanship. 

“Wow, sorry, I would’ve come sooner but I didn’t think there were gonna be this many campers on day 1,” he said. 

Turning around, the man looked over at Garret, and he got a better look at him. He had a strangely pale complexion, with wide, brown eyes and a thin scar going across his cheek. These weren’t necessarily traits created for his avatar: the VRHS scanned skin tone, eye color and facial features before loading the game, meaning this was probably how he looked in real life, too. 

“I really don’t like campers, and I figured ‘Hey, as long as they’re trying to pick on this kid I might as well give them a taste of their own medicine.’” He paused for a moment when Garret said nothing. “Hey, kid, you home? I’m talking to you,” the man said. 

Garret was pulled out of his analytical train of thought. “Oh, yes, sorry sir. Thanks so much for helping out, sir.”

The man scoffed. “Oh, yeah, don’t mention it. My name’s Lightning, by the way. I’m pretty glad I snagged this username before anyone else,” he said with a cheeky smile. “What’s your name?”

Garret hesitated for a moment. “C-Cyber, sir.”

Lightning smiled. “Okay, Cyber. Cool name. But stop calling me sir, alright? I’m probably not much older than you.”

Garret turned his head to the side. He had just turned 14 a few months ago. “I, uh, doubt that very highly,” he said after a moment. 

Lightning laughed. “I’m only 16 myself, you know.”

Garret nearly fell over. “Jesus, you look a LOT older than that. You could easily pass for a mid-20s.”

Lightning nodded. “I know."

"Seriously, you look, like, OLD old."

"You don't have much of a filter, do you?" Lightning asked. He cracked his neck, before looking down at the massive gated community looming over them. "You wanna go to town together? I’m starving, and it’s always more fun to eat with company.”

Garret mulled over that for a moment. “Uh, sure, alright.”

Lightning set off in the direction of the town without saying another word, Cyber following closely behind him, admiring both his rescuer and the expansive virtual world he was now inhabiting.

**Author's Note:**

> I initially posted a story like this on Wattpad when I was, like, 14, but it was terrible and so I had to basically rewrite it from the ground up. This is the result.


End file.
